WHITE-EYED YIREO 131 



motion, but in a leisurely fashion. They are stouter than 

 warblers and their tails are sliorter in proportion to their 

 length. They are unwearying singers, the Ked-eye alone 

 furnishing a large proportion of the woodland chorus. All 

 the Vireos come down to the ground on occasions, for in- 

 stance to pick up nesting material, but as a rule only the 

 AVhite-eye comes habitually below a line ten feet above the 

 ground ; the Red-eye and Solitary vary from ten to thirty ; 

 the Yellow-throat between twenty and thirty ; the Warbling 

 between thirty and sixty. All but the Yellow-throat are 

 chiefly gray in color. All the Vireos build neat, cup-shaped 

 nests, hung generally from a forked twig. 



White-eyed Vireo. Vireo novehoracensis 



5.27 



Ad. — Upper parts greenish-yellow in strong light ; throat gray- 

 ish-white ; line from Mil to and around eye yellow ; sides and belly 

 very yellow ; wing-bars yellowish ; iris white, visible at a greater 

 distance than the red iris of the Red-eyed Vireo. 



Nest, a cup hung from a fork in a low horizontal bough, some- 

 times from a vine. Eggs, like the Red-eye's. 



The White-eyed Vireo is a common summer resident in 

 southern Connecticut and in the vicinity of New York 

 city, but is rather local in Massachusetts, and absent north 

 of that State. It arrives early in May, and stays through 

 September. It frequents tangled thickets, particularly in 

 lowlands. It seems to be a more excitable bird than the 

 other Vireos, and begins to scold and sing whenever its 

 thicket is approached. It greets a visitor with a startlingly 

 energetic song, containing the notes cliip-wliee-oo. Besides 

 this phrase the White-eye has a great variety of notes, 

 many of them imitative of other birds ; I have heard it 

 give the chip'-churr of the Tanager and the dich'-you of 

 the Chewink. Its scolding-note is a mew, suggesting that 

 of the Catbird. 



